The Malfoy Diaries (A Draco Malfoy Fanfiction)

t h i r t y - n i n e 💛

"Aria, wake up!" sounded Hermione's voice the next morning. It caused Aria's eyes to flutter open as she entered a daze-like state prior to awakening fully. 

"'Mione? What is it?" Aria asked, as she sat up in her bed and ran her fingers through her copper-brown hair. 

Hermione then informed her friend that Remus Lupin had reached Hogwarts, which prompted Aria to swiftly jump out of bed. 

She hastily got ready and then followed Hermione down the corridor. 

"Morning, by the way," Hermione said quickly as the two of them continued on until they reached the Great Hall, where Lupin could be found talking to Harry. 

"Lupin!" Aria said in greeting, as a kind smile made its way onto her face. 

"Hello, Aria," Lupin told her in that familiarly warm voice of his. 

Aria had always been particularly fond of Lupin, otherwise known as her former Defense Against the Dark Arts professor. 

"I wanted to do everything that I could to look out for you all during, well, everything that's going on," Lupin said. 

"Thank you so much for coming back, Lupin," Harry told him with a genuinely appreciative expression. 

Lupin then said that it was no trouble. He had always done all that he could for the people he cared about. This included saving Sirius during their third year. Unfortunately, Sirius was no longer with them, but that was never going to deter Lupin from fighting for the people that he cared about. He had always been creative when it came to his wizardry and so had spent time perfecting charms to help defend the castle. Ever since Lupin had found out about Voldemort's return, he had wanted to find the perfect resolution for himself and his friends and those that he considered family, too. 

"You already know that I wasn't about to leave you at the last hurdle, Harry. I know how much Sirius' death affected us all. I never want myself or anyone that I care about to have to go through something similar. Never again," he said, with sincerity in his voice. 

Sooner than Harry could say anything in response to this, there was a spark of magical energy and Harry, Hermione, Lupin and Aria all turned to see that Nymphadora Tonks had joined them. 

"Well, good morning everyone! Sorry that I'm so late," she said, as she brushed some of her purple hair over her shoulder. Her warm blue eyes looked around to observe the students before they settled on Lupin and she smiled at him with all of her fondness. 

"It's no trouble, Tonks. It means a lot to us that you're here, now," Harry chimed in, then. 

"Indeed," Lupin said, as he took one of Nymphadora's hands in his own and pressed a butterfly-light kiss upon her pale skin. 

"Hi Remus," Nymphadora said, with an affectionate tone to her voice. She hadn't seen Remus in  a little while, as she had been spending much of her time with her mother, Andromeda. She then informed the others of this, too. 

"Why have you been with Andromeda, Tonks?" Harry asked her. 

Nymphadora turned to Harry with a pleasant smile, then, before she explained to him that she and her mother had been planning what they were going to do about one Draco Malfoy. 

"Is he still here?" she asked, with an expression of curiosity. 

The others gave subtle nods of their heads in response to this, while Aria spoke up. 

"Yes. He is. And I don't think he's as much of a concern as we initially thought he was," Aria said, which led Harry to turn to her with a raised eyebrow. 

"I really don't understand how you can say that. Malfoy has always been a complete prat-" Harry cut off, as Hermione elbowed him in the side. 

"Hey! I'm just saying," Harry said. 

"Malfoy is now Aria's friend, so..." Hermione trailed off and then turned to Aria with an apologetic expression, as if she had just revealed one of her worse secrets.

In all honesty, though, Aria wasn't ashamed of her friendship with Draco Malfoy. She had spent a long, long time trying to get through to him that she almost considered it an accomplishment by this point. 

"Interesting," Remus said, as he directed a warm smile towards Aria. 

She was just glad that people weren't judging her for her decisions. She knew that there was still a lot of uncertainty, when it came to Draco, but she was going to push through that. She had all the determination in the world to get through to him and she supposed that she must have a strong will, too, because she certainly wasn't about to give up on him. Not any time soon. 

"When did this start?" Tonks asked then, with an expression of curiosity. 

"A while ago," Aria admitted. "He's been asked to remain at Hogwarts by McGonagall and...he doesn't have his wand. So, he's not really much of a threat." Aria was convinced by her own words, at least. As she thought about Draco, her hand absent-mindedly went to the diary in her pocket for a second. She was still going to have to return that at some point. She decided that she would in the afternoon. That would give Draco enough time to add another entry to it again, and then she could take it and acquire new information about him again. She knew that it wasn't in her best interests to be snooping around the Slytherin common room but she also knew that she needed to check in on Draco and that was one of the easiest ones to do it, at present. He wasn't exactly the most open book. 

Nymphadora didn't seem thoroughly convinced by this sentiment, but she gave a nod of her head, all the same. 

"I was about to go and charm some of the castle with defense incantations. Do you want to come with me, Remus?" she asked. 

"Already done," Remus said, as he picked his mug off the table and took a sip from it. 

"What? No fair," Tonks said, with an expression of disapproval. It only lasted for a second though, before she smiled again. She couldn't stay mad at Remus.